A celebrated annual event in the Xtrac calendar is the Darren Huttel Award presentation which took place on Friday 19th January 2024. This award is in memory of a former well-loved Xtrac employee who suddenly and unexpectedly passed away at aged 35 in September 2005. Darren worked in Xtrac’s build shop for four years and had begun his career as an apprentice, so the Darren Huttel Award for apprentices was created in his memory.

The award is open to all current Xtrac apprentices, and the voting criteria for the award takes into consideration quality of college work and overall performance and conduct both at work and at college.

The winner of the 2023 Darren Huttel award is Sam Dumbleton. Sam had an incredibly strong nomination, and it was supported by many of his key stakeholders including his college lecturers, Xtrac trainers and peers. Sam has demonstrated his ability to work successfully across several departments engaging on a variety of projects and working with lots of different people. He has taken ownership of his personal development and always seeks to produce work of exceptionally high quality paying great attention to health and safety throughout.

The runner up of the 2023 Darren Huttel Award is Ethan Griffin. Ethan came a very close second and had some great testimonials from his stakeholders including what a great asset he is to the nightshift; he is a team player and is a genuine asset to the company. Ethan was also described being the ‘go to guy’ because of his can-do attitude which has saved the nightshift many hours.